Episode 3 of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl.
With their flashlights having been fried by the radiation, the three divers switch to using wind-up lights, which fortunately prove better able to survive the deadly conditions. Outside, Legasov and Scherbina wait anxiously, knowing that if the divers are unable make it, the only likely course of action will be to find three more men to potentially send to their deaths. Fortunately, this proves unnecessary, as the divers successfully return from their mission and in surprisingly good shape, possibly the first bit of good news they've had since the disaster.
Lyudmilla makes her way to Moscow Hospital No. 6, where most of the patients from Chernobyl have been taken. After some trouble getting past the receptionist and the attending doctor, Vetrova — who tells her to spend only 30 minutes with him, and checks beforehand that she isn't pregnant — she finds Vasily's room, and is delighted to find him and his fellow firefighters seemingly recovering, with only seemingly superficial radiation burns.
Back at Chernobyl, Legasov is in the middle of arguing with Scherbina after finding out that an evacuation zone has been set up at an arbitrary distance of 30km around the plant, despite dangerous levels of fallout being detected as far as 200km away. Scherbina tries telling him that the decision was made at a higher level, causing Legasov to rapidly lose his patience and accuse Scherbina of putting party loyalty above the safety of the people. Their argument is interrupted when Pikalov informs them that the fire is almost out, but that the temperature of the smothered reactor core is spiking dramatically, confirming that the reactor's fuel has begun to melt down.
That night, Lyudmilla is woken up when Vasily's condition takes an abrupt turn for the worse, and he begins screaming in agony as the doctors try to sedate him.
Scherbina calls Gorbachev, and informs him of the latest emergency; there is a fifty-fifty chance that the fuel meltdown will be severe enough to completely burn through the plant's foundations and lethally contaminate the groundwater, which feeds into the Dnieper, the river that flows through Kyiv. In order to stave off the worst-case scenario, a heat exchanger will have to be built underneath the plant. Gorbachev promises whatever materials and manpower are needed to build it, but Legasov then interjects and protests that the exclusion zone is inadequate. An irritated Gorbachev tells him to leave that discussion and asks to know when things will be over. Legasov snarks that seeing how the half-life of plutonium is 24,000 years, it probably won't be in their lifetimes, causing Gorbachev to hang up. Scherbina scowls at Legasov, and orders him to go for a quiet walk together.
As the two men walk the deserted streets of Pripyat, Legasov is expecting a dressing-down for his act of disrespect towards Gorbachev, but Scherbina instead asks what will happen to the plant workers and firefighters who've been exposed to radiation. Legasov hesitantly explains that after the initial nausea and illness, the symptoms subside for a day or two, before the patient goes into a rapid and irreversible decline that leads to their bodies breaking down at the cellular level, eventually resulting in a most painful death. As for those who've been exposed to lesser levels, they'll likely suffer from fatal cancer in a few years, to a couple of decades if they're lucky. Scherbina then shows Legasov why he wanted to take a walk — the seemingly innocuous couple he saw in the hotel bar are in fact a pair of KGB agents, who've clearly been sent to keep their eyes on Legasov.
Back in the hotel, Khomyuk has been running numbers to try and explain how the disaster unfolded, to no avail; the worst thing she can make unfold even on paper is only a meltdown, not an explosion. Legasov is similarly stumped, and tells her to go to Moscow and speak to the control room staff while they're still alive. With his experience with the KGB in mind, however, he warns her to be careful.
Outside a mine near the city of Tula, foreman Glukhov is entertaining his workers with jokes about the dysfunctional nature of Soviet engineering, when the Minister for the Coal Industries, Mikhail Shadov arrives. He informs the miners that they've been "selected" for a job of top importance at Chernobyl. Glukhov demands to know what could be important enough to be worth sending his men to such a dangerous location, and Shadov reluctantly explains the impending meltdown and potential contamination of Kyiv's water supply. Satisfied at this answer, Glukhov and his men board the buses to Chernobyl, though not before taking the opportunity to ruin Shadov's tailored suit with coal dust.
In Moscow, Vasily's condition has deteriorated even more sharply than before; most of his hair is gone, and his skin has taken on an unhealthy, almost corpse-like color. With his eyesight failing, he asks Lyudmilla to look out the window and describe what she sees. In reality, the view consists only of some unattractive buildings, but she nonetheless describes an idyllic view of the city's most famous landmarks. Khomyuk, meanwhile, arrives at the hospital and attempts to question Dyatlov — who is ill, but not to nearly the same extent as Vasily and most of his comrades — but he merely complains about the food and tells her to go fuck herself.
The miners arrive at Chernobyl, and Glukhov is sent to a briefing with Legasov and Scherbina. Advised to be as honest as possible with the miners, Legasov makes clear the scope of the task and how dangerous it will be, though is still called out by Glukhov for trying to pretend that the gas masks the miners are wearing will provide any significant protection.
By the following evening, the miners have already made significant progress, but the stifling working conditions are proving a major problem. Glukhov demands that Pikalov provide them with cooling fans, but he refuses, pointing out how dangerous it would be to blow radioactive dust around the site.
Khomyuk finds Toptunov, who is in the final stages of Acute Radiation Syndrome, and barely conscious. He's still lucid enough to give her an interview, however, and the first thing he tells her is that he's only 25 years old, startling her that someone so inexperienced was put in charge of the reactor. Meanwhile, Vasily is wheeled to another room, and a startled Dr. Vetrova discovers that Lyudmilla has been there for the last few days, far longer than the 30 minutes she was supposed to be there. Lyudmilla still refuses to believe that Vasily is suffering from anything worse than burns, but she is finally starting to accept that his condition is terminal. She gets permission from Vetrova to keep her husband company for a little while longer so long as she stays outside the plastic isolation bubble. As soon as Vetrova leaves, Lyudmilla disobeys her instructions and enters the bubble where she confides in her husband — who is barely even conscious, and whose flesh appears to be starting to decompose on his still-living body — that she is pregnant.
As the mining operation continues, Scherbina delivers another bit of good news to Legasov; the fire has finally been extinguished. The two men are then informed by a startled subordinate that the miners, in the absence of any fans, have taken to doing their job naked. Legasov goes to question Glukhov over this, but he is forced to admit they likely won't be any less safe. In turn, Glukhov asks whether he and his men will be taken care of afterwards; Scherbina is forced to admit that he honestly can't say, leaving Glukhov disheartened but at least grateful for their honesty.
Toptunov is finishing his interview to Khomyuk, explaining that there was a colossal power surge in the reactor core, causing Akimov to hit the AZ-5 button to shut the reactor down, after which it exploded. Khomyuk doesn't see how this could be possible, but when she goes to interview Akimov — who is mostly kept off-screen, hinting at his terrible condition even compared to the other radiation victims — he confirms Toptunov's account. As Khomyuk leaves Akimov's room, she happens to pass Vasily's room and sees through the door that Lyudmilla is inside the isolation bubble, with her body language clearly hinting at her pregnancy. Khomyuk quickly drags Lyudmilla out of the room and informs the shocked Dr. Vetrova that she is pregnant. Utterly furious, Khomyuk vows that she will ruin Vetrova's career and expose the incompetence and inadequate care in the hospital, only for an innocuous-looking man to step into the corridor and ask Khomyuk to reiterate what she just said. She begins to do so but stops when another man steps out, causing her to realize that she's just openly admitted her intention to commit an act of dissidence in front of two KGB agents.
The following morning, ahead of another briefing, Scherbina informs Legasov of Khomyuk's arrest. When the briefing begins, Scherbina informs Gorbachev that the heat exchanger is well on track to be completed in time to prevent groundwater contamination. Legasov then lays out the full details of the work that will be necessary to fully contain the disaster, including vastly expanding the exclusion zone, destroying all wild and domesticated animals within the zone, and building a containment structure around the destroyed reactor. The task of coordinating all of this will fall to General Nikolai Tarakanov, who will be taking over from Pikalov; Tarakanov asks how many men will be needed, and how dangerous it will be, to which Legasov says that it'll take at least a quarter-million, and there will likely be thousands of fatalities.
After the briefing finishes, Legasov confronts KGB Director Charkov and demands Khomyuk's release. Charkov initially plays it coy and pretends not to know what he's talking about, but when Legasov makes it clear he'll take responsibility for any future transgressions she commits, Charkov agrees to her release. After the director leaves, Scherbina calls Legasov a "naïve idiot" — a good thing, since naïve idiots aren't a threat to anyone.
As Khomyuk's release papers are being processed, Legasov is allowed into her prison cell, where it turns out she's more shaken up about the sight of what she saw on the ward — especially Akimov, whose face had rotted away — than the experience of her arrest. She repeats what Akimov and Toptunov told her, and says that while the obvious conclusion would be that they simply tried to shut down the reactor too late, she can't shake the feeling that the attempted shutdown may have somehow contributed to the explosion. Legasov momentarily seems uncomfortable but gives her his blessing to continue investigating. However, he says that she won't be able to question Akimov or Toptunov, who passed away shortly after she spoke to them.
Lyudmilla walks away from Hospital No. 6, her expression making it all too clear that Vasily has also passed on. His body, and those of his colleagues, are sealed into lead-lined wooden coffins which are then put in steel coffins, which are then placed in a pit that has been dug near a cemetery. Lyudmilla and the other widows watch on tearfully as a truck pulls up and begins dumping concrete into the pit, sealing off the bodies of their husbands forever.
Preceded by "Please Remain Calm"; Succeeded by "The Happiness of All Mankind".
Tropes:
- After-Action Villain Analysis: A deleted scene in this episode showed the characters doing this to Dyatlov while reading his files, which discussed how (as is Truth in Television), he had survived near-fatal radiation poisoning decades earlier and the incident might have been related to the death of his young son from leukemia. They theorize that this might have inspired an obsession with "taming the atom". The scene was deleted because it was felt to be too much armchair psychology.
- All for Nothing: As revealed in the podcast, the feared meltdown the miners were brought in to prevent ended up not happening. One in four miners died. Still, the podcast explains why this was tragic but completely justified: you can't just take a 50/50 gamble that most of the Soviet Union's fresh water supply gets heavily contaminated with radioactive fuel. Some of the surviving miners even acknowledged that it's good their work was for naught, but they are still proud of the job.
- Almost Dead Guy: Khomyuk interviews the people who are dying from radiation to find out what caused the explosion. Justified, as they really did take that long to die.
- As You Know: Reporting back to Gorbachev, Shcherbina brings up the importance of the Dnieper basin as a food producer for the USSR.
- Bastardly Speech: The head of the KGB claims a system where everyone watches everyone else ensures accountability when it actually ensures that the culpability and incompetence of the authorities is covered up.
- Being Watched: When Shcherbina takes Legasov for a walk, Legasov spots a couple that he recognizes as the couple he talked to at the bar observing them. Shcherbina points out that if they're observing them openly, it's because they want them to know they're watching.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Charkov confirms to Legasov that people are following him. People follow those people. And even he is followed."The KGB is a circle of accountability. Nothing more."
- Blatant Lies: Lyudmilla is asked by the nurse who sees her to Vasily if she's pregnant, which she denies out of fear that she would be prevented from seeing him if she admitted the truth. Unfortunately, the radiation exposure she suffers from hugging him is enough to cause their child to be stillborn.
- Body Horror: Death by radiation poisoning, which is basically your body dying and rotting from within while you're still alive, if you even make it that far. There is a time where the victims appear to be in a state vaguely resembling almost healthy, but this is a Hope Spot that quickly gives way to the final stages, where they look more like zombies than living people. At the absolute end, the victim's blood vessels have the structural integrity of a wet paper bag, causing them to bleed to death and rendering attempts at pain relief completely pointless. The plant workers (bar Dyatlov, who survives) and first responders are shown in the late stages of this process, and it isn't pretty.
- Bothering by the Book: The miners' staple. Their "friendly" patting of the Minister of Coal covers him in coal dust and likely ruins an expensive suit. They are later denied fans to cool down while working at 50C/122F beneath the reactor core, so they strip and work naked—pointing out that they are still wearing the hats, so Shcherbina and Legasov can't really be mad at them.
- Brutal Honesty: Glukhov, working naked because of the heat in the tunnel even though that will leave him and the rest of his mining crew more exposed to radiation, asks if his people will be "looked after" when the work is done. Boris seems to almost utter some sort of reassuring platitude before instead saying "I don't know." The foreman then turns around and goes back to work. This echoes Shcherbina's own advice to Legasov when first meeting Glukhov, as Shcherbina knows that the common working man prefers and respects honesty to political BS.
- Chekhov's Gunman: While walking at night with Shcherbina, Legasov recognizes the couple from the hotel and realizes they're following them. Shcherbina then tells him that those two are KGB agents.
- Chew-Out Fake-Out: Legasov's constant carping about the state not doing enough to evacuate people from the area exasperates Shcherbina no end. When Legasov makes a sarcastic crack to Gorbachev, Shcherbina has had enough, and he insists they take a walk. Legasov thinks Shcherbina is about to give him a dressing down, but instead, Shcherbina quietly asks for more information on the effects of radiation poisoning, then he silently indicates that they're being followed... by the "husband and wife" Legasov talked to earlier. Shcherbina actually agrees with Legasov that they need to amp up the evacuation, but he knows they have to be very careful what they say, since the KGB is always watching and listening.
- Cliffhanger Copout: The opening of the episode reveals that there wasn't actually a crisis at hand since the divers had backup wind-up flashlights on them.
- Comfort the Dying: Lyudmilla disobeys Dr. Vetrova in the Moscow hospital because she doesn't want Vasily to face an agonising death alone.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Legasov is stunned when his blunt plea to the KGB Deputy Chairman Charkov for Khomyuk's release succeeds. Shcherbina wryly observes to Legasov that he came across like a "naive idiot" and therefore not a threat.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The end stage of radiation poisoning can basically be described as your tissues decomposing, except that you're still alive.
- Damage Control: The episode focuses on efforts by the miners to install a heat exchanger under the reactor in order to prevent total meltdown.
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Vasily asks his wife to open the curtains of his hospital room but his eyes can't take it, so she gives him sunglasses to wear.
- Deadly Hug: In the hospital, Lyudmilla and Vasily embrace while Vasily still seems healthy, despite the doctor's warnings of them not to touch. Lyudmilla's exposure to radiation from this and the rest of the time she spent with him later leads to the death of her unborn baby and severe health consequences for her. In fact, as the camera is spinning around them, we are subjected to lens flare, seemingly indicating Lyudmilla being exposed to radiation. It also plays the same musical cue that is played throughout earlier scenes of deadly or dangerous radiation exposure, first and most prominently heard when the plant workers look directly into the burning core.
- Deadly Nosebleed: Toptunov bleeds from his nose not long before he dies from the radiation sickness.
- Doomed New Clothes: Mikhail Schadov arrives at the coal mine in a nice suit - which the miners make a point of smearing with coal dust, to show their opinion of his authority.
- Double-Meaning Title: "Open Wide, O Earth" shows both the miners digging a contingency tunnel under the reactor and the firemen's funeral.
- Facial Horror: Khomyuk reports that by the time she interviewed Akimov, there was nothing left of his face, though this isn't shown.
- Fan Disservice:
- Badass working men doing hard labour naked? Sounds like a perfect opportunity to showcase Hot Men at Work... but in practice, the miners are rather too dirty, hairy and potbellied for that by most conventional standards. They're also exposing themselves to radiation because it's too hot to wear the protective equipment.
- The firemen are all in good shape, and they are presented almost completely naked, with only small covers over their genitalia... while in the hospital, dying of acute radiation syndrome, and the nude shots mean the viewer is spared none of the Body Horror.
- Gallows Humor: Glukhov's Establishing Character Moment provides a great example.Glukhov: What's as big as a house, takes 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shitload of smoke and noise, and cuts apples into three pieces? [beat] A Soviet machine made to cut apples INTO FOUR PIECES!
- Glasses Pull: Khomyuk is interviewing a horribly burned, dying Toptunov about the accident. She asks how old he is, and Toptunov—covered with ghastly burns, almost all of his hair gone, the top layer of his skin gone—gasps, "25". A shocked Khomyuk pulls her glasses off before gathering herself and asking more questions.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Khomyuk interviews the surviving members of the reactor staff. Each of them is shown in horrifying states of living decomposition except for Akimov, who is only shown from an obstructed angle (only his feet are visible). Later, Khomyuk will only say Akimov's face was "gone".
- Got Volunteered:
- Subverted. The miners are approached by the Minister of Coal and ordered to get on the buses to Chernobyl, though he can't tell them why, but they point out that there's nothing the soldiers can really do to force them and demand a better explanation. After realizing the gravity of the situation, however, they all volunteer willingly.
- At the end of the episode, soldiers go from door-to-door to deliver draft notices, conscripting people into becoming liquidators.
- Historical Downgrade: Mikhail Shchadov, Minister of Coal Industries, is depicted as a smarmy, thin guy in a suit. In real life, he was a burly, middle-aged man (but looked older); was a former coal miner himself; and upon obtaining his ministerial position, he worked to improve working conditions for coal-miners, gaining a healthy amount of respect from them as a result. Thus, he didn't need to bring armed soldiers with him to recruit the coal-miners for cleaning up the Chernobyl disaster, nor did he try to hide what they were needed for and what risks they would face.
- Hope Spot:
- As Legasov explains, after the initial burns from severe radiation sickness subside, there is a period where the victim appears to be recovering—but that's when the long-term cellular damage starts to set innote .
- The beginning of the episode functions this way for the series, mirroring Legasov's description of radiation sickness: the divers have succeeded in opening the sluice gates, preventing thermal explosion, and Lyudmilla is back by her husband's side, who appears to be getting better...
- In the Original Klingon: KGB Deputy Chairman Charkhov repeats the old Russian proverb, "Trust but verify", then remarks on the irony that the Americans credit it to their own President Reagan. Inverted in this case, since the saying actually did originate in Russia note , but was repeated by an American academic to Reagan, who liked it so much he used it as a catchphrase in nuclear disarmament talks with the Soviet Union (much to Gorbachev's annoyance).
- Insult Friendly Fire: After Legasov rants about how career party men make arbitrary decisions (referring to the exclusion zone with boundaries that have nothing to do with science), Shcherbina scolds him that he himself is also a career party man, so Legasov should be careful what he says.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: When Khomyuk first arrives to interview Dyatlov, he mistakes her for hospital staff and she corrects him thus:Khomyuk: I'm not a nurse, Comrade Dyatlov. I'm a nuclear physicist.
- Lecture as Exposition: Shcherbina asks Legasov to explain just what the radiation exposure is going to do to his people. Legasov then tells him about how the initial exposure leads to wide-scale internal cell death, followed by a "latency period" in which the victim seems to be recovering, before their body starts falling apart—bone marrow death, arteries and veins splitting apart, horrible suffering and pain. This comes in the same episode that focuses on the workers at the plant that are dying slow and terrible deaths in a Moscow hospital. Lyudmilla arrives at the hospital to find her firefighter husband Vasily sitting up in his bed and playing cards with his buddies—the period of latency. This is followed within a day by Vasily going through an excruciating death, as his body rots while he is still alive.
- Lens Flare: Shown during the Orbital Hug scene of Lyudmilla and Valery in the hospital, likely indicating Lyudmilla getting irradiated by touching her husband.
- Let Them Die Happy: When Vasily asks Lyudmilla what she sees out of the window of the Moscow hospital room, she pretends she is seeing all the sights a tourist would crave just so he could feel happy.
- Love Makes You Stupid: Lyudmilla spends an unsafe amount of time with Vasily when he is in the hospital despite being warned against it. Justified in that she isn't told why it is so dangerous until it's already too late.
- Male Frontal Nudity: The coal miners, working in a 50 C tunnel without any ventilation, take all their clothes off. Glukhov, the utterly unashamed foreman, strides up to Boris and Valery in the nude when they arrive to find out what's going on.
- Naked People Are Funny: Played with. While it's humorously shocking at first to see the miners walking around in the buff, the levity fades when the lead miner Glukhov bluntly tells Shcherbina that it's too hot to wear the protective gear, and they knew the gear wouldn't protect them from the radiation anyway. The only funny thing is when Glukhov mockingly tells Shcherbina "We're still wearing the fucking hats."
- Nothing Is Scarier: We're never shown Akimov's face as he dies a slow, painful death through ARS. Khomyuk remarks to Legasov that when she interviewed him, he had no face left. This is notable, as both Toptunov and Ignatenko were both shown with varying stages of ARS-induced damage.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: The miners are sent to dig a tunnel to prevent radioactive material from contaminating the river system, an action which could lead to the deaths of many of them. Everyone knows that this trope might be the case, since there's only around a 40% chance that the rivers will be contaminated even if they do nothing, but the risk is just too horrible to take any chances on. And indeed there really wasn't any danger.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Khomyuk at the Moscow hospital, when she realizes that she's gotten the attention of the KGB. Just before that, she sees Lyudmilla keeping a hand on her belly, and realizes that she's pregnant while still standing next to her irradiated husband.
- Khomyuk and Legasov each when they find out the reactor exploded after Akimov pressed the AZ-5note button. Khomyuk's reaction is because AZ-5 failed, which she doesn't understand. Legasov's reaction is because AZ-5 failed, and he realizes why.
- Poor Communication Kills: While Lyudmilla is told not to touch Vasily and not to stay with him for more than half a hour, nobody bothers to tell her why or even that he's suffering from radiation burns and what exactly that means — this becomes apparent when she states to a doctor that he is "just" burned. For this reason, she ignores the warnings. Or, alternatively, the doctors know exactly what they are looking at but were told to keep their mouths shut by the KGB to prevent the spread of the truth. The contamination resulting from her staying with Vasily for too long ends up costing her her then-unborn child.
- Precautionary Corpse Disposal: Three firefighters who died from Acute Radiation Sickness are buried in lead-lined caskets, sealed in zinc covered coffins, and covered in concrete because it is too dangerous for them to be cremated or given a proper burial, due to the high risk of contamination from the radiation which killed them.
- Race Against the Clock: The miners have to work around the clock for weeks to finish the tunnel before the core melts through the concrete base of the reactor.
- Sarcastic Clapping: A variation; the Minister for Coal Industry turns up at Glukhov's mine and informs him and his crew that they'll be helping out at Chernobyl. After pointing out that the armed guards don't have enough bullets to shoot them all, Glukhov "agrees" by very slowly and very deliberately clapping him on the shoulder, covering him in coal dust in the process. The rest of his crew do exactly the same thing.Worker: Now you look like the minister of coal.
- Saved by a Terrible Performance: Legasov tries to convince Charkov, a high-ranking KGB official, to let Khomyuk out of KGB's custody. Charkov at first goes for the old complete denial routine, claiming that he has no idea who or what Legasov is talking about, but Legasov insists on pressing the issue, saying that he must know since he has him and Shcherbina under constant surveillance. At this point, Shcherbina tries to apologize on Legasov's behalf, knowing how dangerous it is to make demands of someone like Charkov. But Charkov just takes Legasov's behavior in stride, and even appears to be somewhat perversely amused by it, and he then casually agrees to arrange for Khomyuk's release, as long as Legasov promises to take responsibility for her actions. Shcherbina then "compliments" Legasov afterwards, saying that he did a good job acting like a naive idiot so he will be Beneath Suspicion.
- Saying Too Much: Khomyuk rages at Doctor Vetrova for letting Lyudmilla sneak into the isolation ward to comfort Vasily, declaring that everyone will know about the incompetence of the hospital staff—only to then be arrested by a KGB agent who overheard this, as the KGB are working to keep a lid on things.
- Secret Police: The Committee for State Security, better known as the KGB, are prominently featured in this episode. Khomyuk is attested for confronting doctors who allowed Lyudmilla to continue seeing her husband.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Lyudmilla finally tracks down Vasily to the Moscow hospital, and they are joyfully reunited. We see them hugging, kissing and smiling, all whilst the dialogue and ambient sound fades away to be replaced by a dark, foreboding motif making it clear that all is not well.
- Staring Down Cthulhu: Shcherbina and Legasov give an update on the situation to the Kremlin. Shcherbina concludes with a very subservient appeal to Charkov, Deputy Chairman of the KGB, expressing his hopes they have performed to the KGB's expectations. After the meeting breaks up, Legasov homes in on Charkov, expresses his disgust at being followed, and demands the release of Ulana Khomyuk, who was taken into custody. Shcherbina watches on with horror because he understands what Charkov and his ilk in the KGB does to people who step out of line, but the old KGB man is almost amused by Legasov's assertiveness. He agrees to release Khomyuk as long as Legasov accepts accountability for anything that happens with her from that point, then politely excuses himself and walks away. Shcherbina is equally relieved and frustrated with Legasov at the outcome.Shcherbina: Oh, that went surprisingly well. You came off like a naive idiot. Naive idiots are not a threat.
- This Cannot Be!: Khomyuk is interviewing the dying plant operators to find out what happened. When Toptunov gasps that they actually did press the scram button and the explosion happened after that, Khomyuk flatly says, "That's impossible."
- Unbroken Vigil: Lyudmilla stays with her husband as long as she can while he is dying, despite being told by the doctors not to.
- The War Has Just Begun: Legasov tells a government committee who thinks that the catastrophe has been handled, telling them that they still have months of grueling, potentially deadly clean-up work left.
- Younger Than They Look: One of Khomyuk's interviewees in the Moscow hospital resembles an ancient, rotting corpse. She's shocked when she finds out he's the 25-year-old Toptunov. When she interviews Dyatlov, we find that his hairline has receded significantly, and his remaining hair and mustache have gone dead white, in a matter of weeks.
